Month: June 2016

Preface:

As described in my first post for this project, for years I’ve experienced a reoccurring dream of good forces battling evil forces. Click HERE to read Post 1 for a brief description/introduction to this project.

*In this post I will be taking on Satan himself, and his followers too, in an attempt to spread truth and demolish the influence of his lies. He surely won’t be happy with me. Good!

“But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”

2 Thessalonians 3:3

Reflection:

At times, every one of us may become susceptible to confusion, including moral confusion – being able to tell right from wrong, good from evil. After all, we are only human.

Whether a person is a Christian or not, it is undeniable that American culture was built around Christian ideals. As such, we innately place certain principles on a pedestal; especially love/charity, forgiveness, benevolence, kindness, respect, and peace. We also try to empathize with and show compassion towards others, including those unlike ourselves. Our societal morals, through various secular narratives, become sterilized of Christ himself. As a natural result, Americans sometimes confuse right from wrong, as the “wrong” is often well-dressed in a beautifully deceptive coat brandishing our collective, American ideals.

There is probably no better example of this than what occurred last Tuesday (6.6.16).

“The Pentagram is a star with five points. Using GPS technology we will place the five points of the star so that the Pentagram will encompass your entire city. When all of the points are in place, the Pentagram is completed. Drawing this symbol around your city represents a solemn promise from us, the Satanic Temple of Los Angeles. We will stand with the good people of the City of Lancaster and struggle for our constitutional right to individual liberty, freedom of expression and the separation of church and state in your community.”

The article goes on to explain that, beginning at 3:00 PM, this group of Satanists would be performing rituals at each of the 5 points (locations) of the pentagram, followed by a “magic hour” at sundown. (It was at 3:00 PM that Christ died on the cross: the timing of this event celebrating 666 at 3 PM was no coincidence.) “We stand up for human rights and civil rights,” the Satanists declared. On their website, the Satanists go on, stating that “It is in this spirit of benevolence that we announce our presence in your city…”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m glad I don’t live there!” I thought to myself, recognizing this event’s devilish nature and the innate falsehoods within the group’s deceptive message.

What shocked me, however, was a statement by the article’s author: “If you’re looking for ill behavior, you’re probably better off at a Donald Trump rally. This sect, with roots at Harvard and Cambridge, is decidedly intellectual. Animals are respected; people, even more so.”

“Did I just read that?” I thought out loud. “Did the author seriously just say that the Satanists respect people?” The gravity of this nonchalant proclamation by the author, which implies that Satanists are just harmless intellectuals, left me speechless. “How can he be so blind?”

How can any group invoking Satan be seen as anything but evil?

“No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

2 Corinthians 11:14

Then it occurred to me why the author, and many others, may be unable to recognize the devil’s influence here: he is the father of lies, the deceiver. The devil uses our own ideals against us, to trick us into accepting him, little by little, bit by bit… and he is quite skilled at this.

For this reason, I wish to illuminate the issue and clarify confusion…. There is no gray area here, only right and wrong.

“But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

“Our mission is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people. In addition, we embrace practical common sense and justice. As an organized religion, we feel it is our function to actively provide outreach, to lead by example, and to participate in public affairs where so ever the issues might benefit from rational, Satanic insights. As Satanists, we all should be guided by our conscience and undertake noble pursuits guided by our individual will. We believe that this is the hope of all mankind and the highest aspiration of humanity.”

Did you catch all of that? Did you pick up on the American ideals woven skillfully into this group’s mission in an attempt to frame themselves as “good.” Kindness, compassion, charity, respect for others: those values are all nicely wrapped up in a lovely bow of “good feeling” within the Satanist’s mission statement above.

For anyone with lingering doubts about the “goodness” of this group of “intellectuals,” (an affiliate of the national Church of Satan) Satanists attempt reassurance by explaining their strong atheistic stance in an effort to set themselves apart from those crazy, evil, devil-worshippers. Right…

Thankfully Christ, through the Word, gave us a means to differentiate between good and evil, truth and lie. He tells us about Satan and his followers:

“Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you do not want to hear My teaching. The devil is your father. You are from him. You want to do the sinful things your father, the devil, wants you to do. He has been the killer from the beginning. The devil has nothing to do with the truth. There is no truth in him. It is expected of the devil to lie, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

John 8:43-44

For a group who claims disbelief (atheism), their deep seeded hatred of God is evident, most especially so in their attempt to frame God as “the oppressor.”

The Satanic Temple of LA’s website continues:

“To the Satanist, the Pentagram symbolizes the triumph of matter and individual spirit over dogma, earth over an illusory promise of the afterlife. It is a symbol of our dedication to fight against tyranny and the oppressor of individual liberty.”

So, why do these “benevolent” atheists despise the Lord so deeply?

“Whoever puts his trust in His Son is not guilty. Whoever does not put his trust in Him is guilty already… The Light has come into the world. And the Light is the test by which men are guilty or not. People love darkness more than the Light because the things they do are sinful. Everyone who sins hates the Light. He stays away from the Light because his sin would be found out.”

John 3: 18-20

Satanists’ disdain is not limited to the Lord alone. To spite their declarations of good will to all, Christians are not included. On the Church of Satan website, Christians are given a strict warning:

“Your bigotry and intolerance are exactly the same as that shown by the terrorists who kill those who do not share their beliefs. The free world of rational secular individuals is tired of people like you. You will reap as you have sown.”

Hatred of Christians is an important necessity of a Satanist. After all, we live counter to the darkness: we live in the Light. Anything which may remind a Satanist of his or her own sin is an immediate threat toward the goal of erasing any semblance of guilt from his/her mind. Simply by existing, Christians remind others of God’s love and of moral living. For this, you are despised. Your very existence is nothing less than an existential threat. Oh, and let’s not forget that to these “intellectuals,” you and I are just plain stupid.

Oddly, the only person truly worthy of the liberties and respect so extolled by these atheists is only each Satanist himself/herself. Counter to the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no others gods but Me,” the Church of Satan proudly proclaims:

“Our position is to be self-centered, with ourselves being the most important person (the “God”) of our subjective universe, so we are sometimes said to worship ourselves. Our current High Priest Gilmore calls this the step moving from being an atheist to being an “I-Theist.”

Uh-huh…

One final way we can see the devil himself within the “human rights-centered” Satanist “religion,” this “sect,” is that it is empirically lacking one key thing – forgiveness.

“We Satanists are thus our own “Gods,” and as beneficent “deities” we can offer love to those who deserve it and deliver our wrath (within reasonable limits) upon those who seek to cause us—or that which we cherish—harm.”

Where is the forgiveness in that wrath? One must wonder what exactly the “reasonable limits” to their wrath are…

Scary.

Jesus Christ died so that we may live. Forgiveness is the greatest gift of all, one we surely don’t always deserve. Yet, it is through Christ Jesus alone that we find everlasting life.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

And so it is my hope today that by reading this post you will be immune to the confusion from and blinding effects of the Satanists through power of the Word of Jesus Christ our Lord, seeing clearly the deceiver himself therein. Remember to walk in the light of the Lord. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

Ephesians 6:11

Artistic Process:

In beginning the background of the painting, I focused on creating varying shades of gray, symbolizing the confusion of the world. Keeping my brush wet, I spread on black paint, then white. Wetting my brush again, I then smeared the black and white together in a random fashion to create varying shades of gray.